Sticker Bellies, Baby Stats, and Silly Boys

If you've never had a sticker belly, you've never truly lived. Okay, that's not really true, but sticker bellies are a good time. Zeke has discovered stickers. His favorite place to put stickers is on his belly. I put them on upside down so that when he looks down at his belly, he can see them right side up. It's really fantastic. Zeke and I went food shopping Saturday with is belly looking rather decked out in stickers. I bet all the other shoppers were jealous of Zeke and his sticker belly.

Today, I took Zeke and Deacon to the doctor's for check-ups and well baby appointments and the like. I won't go into the time we spent there because I just might hurt someone. I will say that I seriously dislike that place and it's days like today that make me somewhat excited to be leaving here. Not that I think the clinic will be better anywhere else, it is the military after all, but I think ANYTHING has to better than this. Anyhoo. Deacon weighed in at 22 1/2 pounds, and was measured at 30 1/4 inches. That puts him in the 50% range for weight, then the 75% range for his height. We met the "new" doctor (he's actually been here since 2005, but he deployed right away so he's only been working the clinic since after Zeke and Deacon's last appointments in January). He was very nice, and we had a pleasant time with him. Deacon also got his shots and a finger prick to test his blood for anemia (it's routine for all one year olds). He didn't like those last two things at all.

Zeke, on the other hand weighed in, I think, at 30 1/4 pounds, but I don't really know, nor do I have any idea about his height because we left before he was seen by the doctor, and it's the doctor who gives you the height/weight stat sheet when (s)he sees you. That's right. We left. But I don't want to go into it, so we'll leave it at my quick glimpse of the scale said about 30 1/4 pounds (a little over 50% range), and I was too busy wrangling Deacon away from the other scale to glimpse Zeke's height.

Maybe you noticed in Deacon's picture that nice shiner he's got going on. Poor baby nailed himself right under the eye with a pasta pot yesterday (they use it to play with - it usually houses all the animals). It actually looks fine today. Just a little cut under his eye, no bruising or anything. I think Josh is a little disappointed. Being one has been pretty rough on the kid already. If he keeps this up, it's going to be a loooong year.

And, before I go, one last story about Zeke now that just made me laugh. We were having dinner the other night, and Zeke has started getting really good at using open cups on his own. We only use them at meals though so he's not walking around all willy-nilly with a cup of water spilling all over the place behind him. So, he's sitting there, and he put his cup down after a good, long drink, and went to get some food to put in his mouth when he accidentally knocked over his cup and spilled his water all over the table. As soon as the water poured out, Zeke looked at the mess and said, "Aww, man!" I wonder where he got from? Certainly wasn't me (cough, cough).

Blessings A-Plenty!

Boy oh boy, God is good. So much awesomeness has happened this month I just don't know where to start, so I'll start with what (who) came first.

For those of you who don't know this, I have a younger seester. Her name is Genevieve and I just LOVE her. We served on the beach mission together a couple of summers in a row and grew incredibly close, and she is seriously my younger sister. (As if three weren't enough.) But since there's no blood relating us (besides the blood of Christ) we call each other "seester". That being said, I'm an aunt! Genevieve and Steve had a baby girl on June 16th at 4:11 in the afternoon. Her name is Grace and she weighed in at 7.6 pounds and was 21 1/4 inches long. Pretty darn close to Zeke's size at birth. But here are some pictures of the sweet baby girl and her parents. Yay!

Then, as if that wasn't enough, Linda and Jeff's baby boy Samuel arrived! Aaahh! I'm so in love! For those of you just tuning in, Linda and Jeff are adopting this sweet baby boy who was born on Wednesday (that's June 25th) at 12:25 in the afternoon. He weighed in at 7 pounds 3 1/2 ounces and is 18 3/4 inches long. And he's just down right adorable. I'm an aunt! I just sent him a little something in the mail and signed it Uncle Josh and Aunt Beth (and Zeke and Deacon). What fun! Here are some pictures of this new little guy. As you can see, Linda and Jeff are just besides themselves with joy. As are we.

And then, oh yes, there's more, and then, Deacon turned ONE yesterday! What?!? How did this happen? I do not recall giving permission for my sweet baby to turn one. It seems like just last year he was born. Okay, bad joke. Here are some pictures from his present from us - a train. The middle picture is Zeke melting down because we wouldn't let him play with it right away. Oh yeah. Once Deacon left it alone for a second though, Zeke absconded with it to another part of the house. Josh said he gives new meaning to the term "train robber". I don't think Deacon minded too much though.

And then, there was cake. Oh boy, was there cake. Everywhere. I have more pictures up on Flickr.

Happy birthday sweet boy. We love you.

And welcome Gracie and Sam. We love you too, and we can't wait to meet you.

I hope God is blessing you all as He is surely blessing us.

It's a Start

We have a house. We don't have orders, we don't have a "movers come and take away all our stuff" date, we don't have a "say good-bye to Germany" date. We don't have anything concrete about our leaving here, but we do have a house in Oklahoma now to live in for the seven or so months that we will be there for the career course.

As you can guess by the picture, Joni found it for us, as well as did all of the contact and leg work, so it'll be ready and waiting for us whenever we actually get there. I'd link the rest of the pictures, but the current renters are still working on getting out, so it's messy, and not our stuff, and it'll look different once we're all moved in. You know, in time to move out. I kid. Anyhoo, it's seems like it'll be just the right size for us, and we're super excited that we'll be neighbors with the Starlings! Now, if we could just get those orders...

America's Next Top Models?

So, after reading Joni's post today and her comment on entering Sammie in Parent's cover model contest, I looked into it and decided to enter the boys, kind of on a whim, and really just for fun. But if you want to "help" you can click on the links below and vote for the boys. I think you just pick a picture of them and rate it. You can rate as many times as you want (I think) and for as many of the pictures you want (I think). Then the kids with the highest ratings or whatever go on the next level etc. I don't expect to make it to the next level as some kids have been on the site for months and we only have a week left of voting. But, what the hey. It's all good fun. So, the first link is for Zeke's pictures and the second is for Deacon's.

http://www.parents.com/app/sharemy/photoDetails.jsp?photoId=213401320

http://www.parents.com/app/sharemy/photoDetails.jsp?photoId=213401352

I hope they work. Spread the word and vote, vote, vote! I am such a dork.

Summertime...and the living is easy.

Ahh...the summer weather has returned. We're still waiting on orders, so no news on that front. Hopefully today or Tuesday we'll have them and have some plans made. But back to our summer, here are some pictures of the boys playing in the sandbox with Oma and Opa. Interest in the sandbox had waned a little, but I bought some new sand the other day and it's become a favorite once again. I think they both just sat there playing with the sand for a good half hour. It's wonderful when they play so nice together.

On Wednesday, PWOC went strawberry picking at a local strawberry field, and I ventured out with both boys. Whoo boy, was that exciting. Zeke did great. He got the hang of picking the strawberries right away. Deacon, on the other hand, got his grubbly little mitts on one, ate it before I could stop him, then proceeded to freak out until I managed to get his Cheerios. After I paid for the strawbs we picked, I let each boy have one before I put them in the car. That was a mistake. About five strawberries each later, they were both freaking out for more. And I really do mean freaking out. Whining and crying and waving hands all around and arching backs and trying to jump out of the stroller I had placed them in so I could pay. Geez people!
Yesterday I gave them strawberries with their chicken salad sandwiches for lunch. I would like to state for the record that I do NOT enjoy being yelled at and "impatiently moaned" at during an ENTIRE meal. These boys are strawberry monsters! I learned my lesson though, and today I cut up the strawberries and put a certain amount on each plate before they could even see what I was doing, so once the ones on the plate were gone, that was it. Whew!

But all in all, we are thoroughly enjoying the sunshine and the warmer weather. Even though it tends to cool off in the afternoon considerably, the boys and I are having a good time just relaxing and taking it easy. I hope everyone else is enjoying their summers so far too!

Yay! for Aunt Linda!

So much to write, so little time. Okay. Josh's sister, Linda, came to visit us last week. She arrived last Sunday and left today (this was posted a day after it was written since I didn't get to finish it yesterday like planned). We had a FABULOUS time. It was great as Josh was in the field and I was so happy to have some extra hands around to help me with "Thing One" and "Thing Two".

Before I get into what all we did while she was here, I first want to put out there that the Thursday before she came out, Linda and Jeff got a phone call. They have been chosen to adopt a baby! AAHHH!!! Not only have they been chosen, BUT the baby, who has yet to be born, is going to be born on the 25th of this month! So, not only did they find out three days before she left that they were getting a brand new baby boy, but that they were getting a brand new baby boy in 20 days, ten of which Linda was spending in Germany! It's so crazy. We are so incredibly stoked, and I just had to share that with all of you! I hope you don't mind, Linda.

Now, on to her visit. Most of the time we just hung out around the house doing some of our favorite things. You know, wrestling, going for walks, eating, playing, really just hanging out. Hanging out as we hang out. Yeah. It's always a good time over here. Here are some pictures of us hanging out as we hang out.

On Friday, I surprised Linda with a "Yay You're Adopting a Baby in Twenty Days!!" dinner. Not to be confused with a baby shower. Those are SO 1982. Anyhoo. I had invited some of my friends who either knew Linda, or who had been praying for her the past few months (year) of this wild adoption ride. I also invited a friend of Linda's who lives in Germany to dinner as another surprise. It was awesome. Linda's friend drove two plus hours to come to dinner, and boy was Linda surprised by it all. The first picture is her crying at the realization that dinner was for her, and that her friend came over for it, that we were all there for her (and for Jeff, but he was in the states). Oh, the last picture is pirate monkey pj's from yours truly. I couldn't resist them. Yarg!

This time around we finally managed to get Aunt Linda to the schwimmbad (pool). I thought she had been before, but she never had. Crazy! This was also Deacon's first time in water bigger than the bathtub. He had a blast. I will say this for my boys, they are NOT afraid of water. In fact, they LOVE water. Put them in or around any amount of water, and fun will be had. No one gets out dry either. But that's all part of the fun, right?

In closing, Josh decided to have a "mustache off" with his former driver while he was in the field the first few weeks of this month. He won. He also freaked out the kids a little bit when he came home sporting it. Here's a picture. It's your 'moment of zen' as I bid you farewell for today.

Oh! One more thing. I put up a whole bunch of pictures from the month on flickr. Check it out by clicking on the badge to the left.

Ahhh...the Volksfest

Every May/June Schweinfurt sets up a big volksfest in the fest platz across from base. It's essentially a carnvial. There are rides and games and food and all kinds of fun. I love to go. I look foward to it every year. This year, my friend Elizabeth and I took the boys this past Sunday. We had bratwurst for dinner, and then walked around. Here's a picture of Elizabeth, Zeke and Deacon enjoying dinner.

This year I took Zeke on his first amusement park ride. It was one of those little trains that just go in little circles. I was happy they let parents on too, otherwise I might not have let him go. I just kept picturing him getting on, it starting, him freaking out, and trying to exit the train as it goes in circles. At first, he was a little hesitant about it, but once I sat down and sat him with me on the train he got SO excited. I'm pretty sure he just about peed his pants he was so thrilled. And when it started moving? Forget about it. He was so stoked he sounded like he was almost crying with sheer excitement. Here's a picture of us on one of our laps around the track.

We also got ice cream on the way out and ate it at a park across the street. This was Deacon's first experience with ice cream, and let's just say it went pretty well. I mean, the kid will eat just about anything so it wasn't too much of a surprise that he liked it, but shortly after this picture was taken he was climbing all over me to get more.

All in all, a pretty good day. I'm super excited Elizabeth was willing to hang out with us so I had some help with the boys. Otherwise, I'm pretty sure we never would have made it.

OH! And by the way, Deaconhasbeensleepingupstairsforabouttwoweeksnowanddoingperfectlyfinewithit.
(I said that quickly so I wouldn't have to admit that Josh was right.)

Now we're just counting down the hours until Aunt Linda gets here tomorrow morning! YAY!

If I Were A Female Cartoon Penguin

I would totally have a crush on Midgel. I told this to Josh the other day while we were out for a walk. I think Midgel is just the grooviest. Besides, I just love accents. Josh feels otherwise.

"If I were a female cartoon penguin," he said, "I would have a crush on Fidgel. I mean, just think about all the cool science experiments and things you'd get to do on dates with him."

At least we both agreed that, if we were female cartoon vegetables, we would both have a crush on this guy right here...

That's right, we would both crush on Archibald Asparagus. He is SO the man. Maybe it's his brains, maybe it's his accent, maybe it's that monocle. I don't know. We can't really explain it, but there you have it.

Of Toots and Teeth

The other night, during dinner, Zeke farted. He looked at me, after doing so, and started laughing. So I told him he had to say, "Excuse me." He looked at me like, "Oh, you think so, huh?" and then tooted again. So I looked at him and said, "Say excuse me." He looked at me, and tried so hard to squeeze out another toot. All he did was make his face red from the pushing. Not five minutes later he was climbing onto the table. After telling him to get down three times, I said, "Am I going to have to spank your bottom?" His reply? A giant toot. Yeah. He is his father's child. Awesome.

Deacon has six teeth now. He got numbers 5 and 6 the other week. It was a terrible week. I guess having two come in at once is not something Deacon really handles well because he had a fever and the pressure from the teeth put pressure on his ears, and he was just a bear to deal with. Until Daddy would arrive home from work. I called Josh one day and told him I was going to sell Deacon to the next pack of Gypsies that passed by because I just couldn't take the constant whining anymore. Of course, as soon as Josh walks in the door that night Deacon starts laughing and smiling and cooing and being just so delightful. Yeah, he's a daddy's boy. Really makes having Josh gone these two weeks extra super. At least he's feeling better though.